FORMULA ONE driver Nico Hulkenberg got in a right spin when he took the legendary 1934 Mercedes W25 racing car round the track at Hockenheim.

Hulkenberg, who drives for the Sahara Force India Formula One team, floored the vintage racer into a bend and lost control completely, ending up drifting and doing doughnuts in a vintage 600hp car.

Over the decades the circuit in the Rhineland of Germany has claimed many lives, including in 1968 legendary Scots race driver Jim Clark and is as notorious as the Nurburgring.

It has hosted motor racing since 1932 and has been home to the German Grand Prix since 1970.

Hulkenburg was almost as exhilarated about driving the vintage car as he is about Formula One, particularly at one of his favourite tracks. He said: “Hockenheim has virtually become my second home. When both the Mercedes grandstand and the Motodrom are packed with fans, you get a really spine-tingling atmosphere.”

The atmosphere was enhanced on the track by the amazing noise of the W25 which comes over loud and clear on the in-car videowhere you can hear the roar of a 3.4-litre straight eight-cylinder.

Nico was not alone either. Accompanying him at Hockenheim were teammates Nico Rosberg and Pascal Wehrlein also in classic racers from the 1950s and 1990s.

The event was to celebrate the 90th birthday of one of Mercedes most famous racing cars, the Silver Arrow of 1926.

Other vintage cars brought out of hibernation included the 1950s Mercedes W196 which won both the 1954 and 1955 championship.